Los Angeles Rams vs. Jacksonville Jaguars Preview & Prediction | PFF

Los Angeles Rams vs. Jacksonville Jaguars Preview & Prediction | PFF

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With over 30,000 therapists, BetterHelp is the world’s largest online therapy platform, having served over 5 million people globally. And it works with an average rating of 4.9 out of five for live sessions based on over 1.7 million client reviews. This World Mental Health Day, we are collaborating with those therapists who have helped millions of people take a step forward. If you’re ready to find the right therapist for you, BetterHelp can help you start that journey. Our listeners get 10% off of their first month at betterhelp.com/pf. That’s betterhelphp.com/pff. Uh, all right. What’s the next game we got? Oh, Rams Jacks in London. the international game. Jags, another pivotal game against a really good opponent which they’ve played over the last couple of weeks here. What are you looking at here for this one? I think the Jags have been on the the winning side of things. So have the Rams obviously. I think the Rams are one of the better teams in the NFL. They’ve just had a tough schedule at times and not having Pukanua or having maybe a limited puka. We’ll see because it’s dayto-day situation. McVey says, “Where do you want to start the conversation with these this game with two really good teams in my opinion?” I’m going to go on the Jag side of the ball and I think Liam Cohen’s done a fantastic job of managing this offense and really getting the run game going and understanding that the underneath throws are going to be there as well. It does remind me again a lot of what he did in his uh actually I should say it reminds me more about of the year before he was the OC in Tampa when Dave Canales had Baker Mayfield in that first season. I think was Liam Cohen on that staff or was he still with the Rams at the time? I can’t remember. But either way, it’s this idea that the one thing missing for me from this Jags offense is the downfield passing, the downfield element. They’re doing a lot after the catch. They’re running the football well with Travis ETN. But when is Trevor Lawrence going to start hitting on these downfield throws more often on 10 plus yard throws this year? Just a 63.7 passing grade context. That’s the seventh lowest among qualified quarterbacks in football. Right. 42% completion rate, 63.4 pass rating, eight turnover worthy plays. It’s the one part missing and I’m just wondering when is going to be the week. And they’ve played some tough defenses. obviously last week uh playing Kansas City that’s obviously not you know the easiest secondary to throw into and they found a way to get a win in part because he made a huge throw to Brian Thomas down the sideline. Can we get more of those or I think even against Seattle it was more about Sam Darnold being able to work downfield and Trevor Lawrence just not quite as consistent. Obviously the Jags have suffered from some drops as well from their receivers. But I think this is going to be a big question for me is can Trevor Lawrence attack this Rams defense downfield even on a handful of occasions? Yes, he’s going to have to get rid of the football quickly against this elite pass rush, but Trevor’s ability to once in a while hit home runs and and honestly the Jags offense, they got to use Travis Hunter downfield more, right? Even last week coming off of, okay, we’re going to use Hunter downfield. And then his average depth of target, I think this week was four yards. So, can they add that in? Albeit against a team right now that’s second in coverage grade against these throws, that’s the element they’re missing. If the Jags can get a downfield element going to their passing game, you’re talking about them possibly winning this division. But I think this offense, it’s cons, it’s a bit conservative. It hasn’t been able to hit a lot of explosive plays down the field. I’m sure Liam Cohen, that’s something he’s thinking. He’s a smart guy. He knows what’s missing in this offense as well. But this is a defense that at times when you have those opportunities in the very few clean pockets you get, you have to find a way to attack and create those explosives. Yeah. Yeah, and I think they’re going to need to um because the the sort of differencem factor that I have in this game when when you look at the certain data points is I hate I hate how these stats sometimes look where it’s like, oh, if Derrick Henry rushes for over a 100 yards, the the Ravens win 10 out of 10 times. Well, duh. It’s because they’re controlling the game so much and they’re leaning into exactly what they do. But for the sake of what I’m about to say, balance is really what I’m focused on here. Because when you look at the Jacksonville Jaguars, their two losses in this game or their two losses that they have this season are their two lowest team rushing grade weeks of the year. So, when the Jags can’t stay balanced in their offense, when they lean too much and they put too much maybe on Trevor Lawrence’s plate or they put too much into the deep passing game like you sort of mentioned right there, that’s when they sort of had those inconsistencies and they tend to struggle a little bit. The issue is Rams have been really good at defending the run this season. couple years ago, they they made a a philosophical change to be a little bit more between the tackles in what they did. And they also made a philosophical change to be better upfront in between the tackles when defending the run, I think, because they knew where this game was going and how it was going to evolve and they were ahead of the curve in that regard. So, they’re already playing well in that area. 78.6 run defense grade. That’s second best in the NFL this season. Their EPA per rush allowed is just 15th, but still top half of the league there. They’re top 10 in positively graded run blocking or sorry rundefending plays and they’re also top 10 in a good way in negatively graded run defense plays. So they are good at defending the run. And you mentioned that they’re also good at defending the pass. I think the Rams are just having a really good defensive start to the season. But I think to your point, the lack of projected success for the Jags on the ground is going to mean a lot towards what Trevor Lawrence can do pushing the ball deep down the field. I think that this game and how the RA the the Rams have been playing is going to demand that Lawrence have his best game of the season when doing that. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s enough. I’m going to say that the Rams win this game 23 to 21. I think it’s going to be close, especially if Puka is a limited version of himself or even not playing in this game. But I do have faith in how the Rams are playing right now to be a little bit more consistent in a different environment, in a different preparation week uh for this international game. And I’ll say Rams 23, Jags 21. This is a hard one because on the other side on the Rams offense, assuming if they don’t have Puka Aua, it’s going to be a little bit harder for them in the passing game because he’s arguably the best receiver in football against zone coverage. And first of all, he’s arguably the best receiver in football right now. Second of all, it’s a in big part because he is arguably the best receiver against zone coverage. And the Jags are such a zoneheavy defense and they’ve been so disciplined in their in their assignments this year in zone coverage and taking the football away, right? So, you lose Puka Nua, you need somebody else to step up in that role cuz Devonte Adams has been a lot better against man and winning those one-on- ones this year than he has against zone. But that’s also in part because they look for Nua to find the space in those coverages. I This is a hard game to pick. I I’m going to take the Rams defense to get him through it. I think that defensive line makes the difference once again. I’ve got the Rams 23-7 and they got to run the football too well with Kron Williams. They’re the best run blocking team in the league right now. I think those two things make a difference and I trust Stafford to work around that nua problem a little bit more. Although there are going to be times where it’s bumpy against this really good coverage unit that even despite Sam Darnold’s great performance last week, they held Seattle to 20 points. So, the Jags defense is going to give him a shot. But I I question Lawrence’s ability to beat this pass rush and work the ball downfield in this game against this defense. Me, too. Yeah, it’s I I’ve talked about this over the last couple of weeks. This these are sort of pivotal weeks to really figure out who who Jacksonville is. And I think in a lot of ways they have shown that they have the ability to be a really good team in certain areas. And some games they put it all together. Some games it’s been a little bit of pieces here and there. But this game I think is even more important than the other ones that we have seen from Jacksonville simply because it’s going to demand I think it’s going to demand Lawrence to be better pushing the ball deep down the field. Can he do that? It’s going to be very important to

PFF’s Dalton Wasserman and Trevor Sikkema preview the matchup between The Los Angeles Rams and The Jacksonville Jaguars.

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